Tour 2025: A new climbing record on Glandon and a failed attempt on Madeleine
Mihai Simion
"I hope they'll go hard, join the breakaways and raise the pace on the first or second climb. I'll be waiting for them. I'll be ready." It's fair to say that the Yellow Jersey got his wish granted today in the Alps and he kept his word, he was ready indeed. So did Vingegaard and Visma Lease a Bike, who promised that they would attack from afar, hinting at a long-range attack from Col de la Madeleine by Jonas, who had nothing to lose.
In order for such an ambitious strategy to succeed, Visma Lease a Bike needed at least one satellite rider in the breakaway of the day, and that role was played today by Matteo Jorgenson. Plagued by an illness in this Tour, he was far from his 2024 level, but his initial jump on the first climb of the day made us believe that he had recovered just in time for the big surgical strike. As was expected, a very strong group went away on Col de Glandon, and the fresh legs (as fresh as they can be in stage 18 of Le Tour) of the attackers pedaled to another climbing record. Ten riders, including the naughty Lenny Martinez, passed together over the top and stopped the clock at 51 min 10 sec, beating Alberto Contador's record from 2017 and also Festina team's assault from 1997 by a very large margin. It is obvious that the riders are still not tired.
The Visma plan was still on track when Matteo Jorgenson made the right turn onto the road to Col de la Madeleine at the front of the race. Unlike in Il Giro, though, UAE Team Emirates XRG didn't allow the dangerous satellite rider a gap bigger than 3 minutes; they learned their lesson this time. So when the "Bees" started to take over the reins of the peloton and started pushing with 82 km to go, and the gap to Matteo dropped too fast, the plan was already starting to sink. Nonetheless, Sepp Kuss did a beautiful lead-out like in his best days, and Jonas launched the most-awaited attack of the day with 5 km to the top of Col de la Madeleine. In the blink of an eye, he and Pogacar caught the leading group, and Jorgenson gave them a lift to the top. Probably demoralized by the way Pogacar answered his attack and with so many kilometers remaining, the Danish climber didn't try a second time. There were no grimaces, rocking of the shoulders, or other signs to betray any weakness of the Yellow Jersey. The pace decrease also helped Ullrich and Pantani's climbing record from 1998 survive, Jonas and Tadej being 2 minutes slower today: 54 min 38 sec, the 2nd fastest ascent ever recorded on Col de la Madeleine.
After a couple of fast corners on the descent where they put a bit of pressure on the Yellow Jersey, the Visma duo decided not to pull anymore in the valley with Pogacar in their wheel and gave up any idea of a stage victory. The reason couldn't have been anything other than fear of defeat against the Slovenian, Vingegaard sensing they would offer him the stage win on a silver platter. The feeling proved to be correct when, in the last kilometer, Tadej countered Jonas' attack with tremendous ease and increased his advantage in GC to 4:26. He was once again merciful and not interested in the stage victory, which went instead to the brave Ben O'Connor, who had one of his magical days when he could beat the whole peloton by minutes.
There still is a big Alpine mountain stage left tomorrow on the way to La Plagne, but barring any incidents, Tadej Pogacar should be able to easily defend the Yellow Jersey. Maybe Visma will go for the stage victory with Vingegaard this time, but Tadej won't make any gifts to them; that is clear. Their tactics from today are definitely debatable, but Red Bull somehow managed to eclipse them: they almost lost the podium spot of Lipowitz after sending him on a solo attack with 32 km to go, and he exploded on the final climb. There are just 22 seconds between him and Onley, so we still have a battle tomorrow. But it's the one for the third step of the final podium in Paris.
Course Details: 21.7 km at 5.2% average gradient
2025
51:10 - L. Martinez-Arensman-Armirail-Gall-Roglic-Jorgenson-Muhlberger-Rubio-Leknessund-Garcia Pierna (25.45 km/h) - CLIMBING RECORD 🏆
51:55 - Jegat-Plapp-Berthet-C.Rodriguez-Barta (25.08 km/h)
53:05 - 35 riders peloton (24.53 km/h)
2017
57:50 - Alberto Contador (25.00 km/h)
1:00:46 - 30 riders peloton (23.80 km/h)
2015
57:24 - Bardet-Anacona (22.68 km/h)
57:32 - Contador-Gesink-Frank-Barguil (22.63 km/h)
57:50 - Nibali-Froome-Quintana-Thomas group (22.51 km/h)
2013
55:12 - Ryder Hesjedal (23.59 km/h)
55:24 - Jon Izagirre (23.50 km/h)
58:25 - Rui Costa-Rolland group (22.29 km/h)
1:02:42 - Peloton (20.77 km/h)
1998
1:00:35 - 50 riders peloton (23.87 km/h)
1997
52:35 - Virenque-Dufaux-Herve-Casagrande-Ullrich-Brochard (24.76 km/h)
52:45 - Riis-Pantani-Escartin-Rous-Moreau-Stephens-15 riders group (24.68 km/h)
54:49 - 25 riders peloton (23.75 km/h)
Course Details: 19.3 km at 7.9% average gradient
2025
54:38 - Vingegaard - Pogacar (21.20 km/h)
55:11 - Florian Lipowitz (20.98 km/h)
56:45 - O. Onley group (20.41 km/h)
2016
59:25 - Romain Bardet (19.49 km/h)
2013
59:20 - Pierre Rolland (19.52 km/h)
1:00:58 - Ryder Hesjedal (18.99 km/h)
1:02:56 - Rui Costa group (18.40 km/h)
1:04:08 - Peloton (18.06 km/h)
2002
1:01:07 - Michael Boogerd (18.95 km/h)
1:01:22 - 35-rider peloton (18.87 km/h)
2000
56:59 - Santiago Botero (20.32 km/h)
57:32 - Virenque, Armstrong, Herve, Moreau, Ullrich, Escartin, Pantani, Heras, Beloki (20.13 km/h)
58:13 - Mancebo, Beltran, Guerini, Hamilton, Livingston, Piepoli (19.89 km/h)
1998
52:40 - Jan Ullrich & Marco Pantani (21.99 km/h) - CLIMBING RECORD 🏆
54:54 - Piepoli, Escartin, Julich, A. Merckx, Boogerd, Riis (21.09 km/h)
55:54 - Robin, Rinero (20.72 km/h)
56:12 - Roland Meier (20.60 km/h)
56:39 - Massi, Salmon group (20.44 km/h)
1997
54:52 - Riis, Ullrich, Escartin (21.11 km/h)
56:05 - Richard Virenque (20.65 km/h)
56:40 - Laurent Dufaux (20.44 km/h)
57:26 - Francesco Casagrande (20.16 km/h)
58:32 - Pantani, Lino, Jimenez, Luttenberger (19.78 km/h)
1994
56:40 - Ugrumov, Riis, Rodriguez (20.44 km/h)
57:48 - Indurain, Virenque, Zulle, Pantani (20.03 km/h)
57:58 - Leblanc, Poulnikov, Van De Laer, Conti (19.98 km/h)
58:43 - 15 riders group (19.72 km/h)
Course Details: 26.0 km at 6.5% average gradient
2025 1:07:20 - Tadej Pogacar (23.17 km/h)
